


Angels will Fly

by InfinityIllusion



Category: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, High and Low: End of Sky, High and Low: Final Mission, High and Low: The Movie, High and Low: the Story of S.W.O.R.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Cloud as a healer, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Flippy flippy parkour babies being flippy, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, M/M, Magic, Major spoilers: Final Mission, Minor Violence, Minor spoilers: End of Sky, Multi, Other, Pii ships Cloud/Smokey, Planet Scar Syndrome | Geostigma, Terminal Illnesses, hand wavy medical science because magic, minor description of injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 16:03:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13391319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfinityIllusion/pseuds/InfinityIllusion
Summary: Cloud Strife, like many inhabitants of Nameless Street, entered with little fanfare.  He didn't mean to befriend children who remind him of Marlene and Denzel, or use his remaining materia to act as a healer, or even become something like an older brother to the Rude Boys.That doesn't mean it doesn't happen.





	Angels will Fly

**Author's Note:**

> BEFORE YOU GO FURTHER: yes, this fic DOES have spoilers for the movies High and Low: End of Sky (minor spoilers), and for High and Low: Final Mission (major spoilers). Don't read this if you don't want to be spoiled.
> 
> General background: So, Cloud kinda gets pulled along and spit out every time Gaia does the whole "let's move the Lifestream to a new planet" (which, someday, I will write the past!Gaia-as-Jenova fic I have in my head, but that day isn't today). But yeah, since Cloud has too much Jenova and Sephiroth in him, he never gets fully assimilated into the Lifestream, and gets spit out periodically on every new planet -- like Earth.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own High and Low or FFVII. I wish I did. Seriously, the shipping opportunities in H&L are crazy.

* * *

“You can’t keep doing this you know.”

Smokey tugs on his jacket, and makes to move out of the cramped space. The alcove might be big enough for Cloud to sleep in, but it’s not really big enough for Smokey to fit comfortably when he comes to Cloud for healing.  There’s nothing they can do about it – Cloud’s not having a great day, but that doesn’t make it more comfortable.

“I can’t cure you. I’m only treating the symptoms, and at this point you’re barely making it through the day without a cough. You’re not going to be able to control the fits for much longer.”

Smokey cracks a smile what might be a smile at the other man’s concern. “I could say the same for you, Cloud.”

Cloud snorts, and makes no move to hide the slowly growing bruise-colored lesions that cover his visible skin like a patchwork quilt. It’s a good day, and the green in his eyes are but a pinprick in the bright blue. “I’m not dying just yet, brat.”

“No, but since we live, we all will die at some point.”

Cloud rolls his eyes.  “‘At some point’ is not today. You know your baby dragons would combust if you up and died on them tonight.”

“Which is why you’re not going to say anything.”

“Yet. I won’t say anything _yet_.”

Smokey stares at the blond, attempting to stare down the weary glowing eyes of the man who might have become something of a brother over the past few years. At the very least he was a fellow conspirator, given his status as the only one who knew about his continued illness.

“I’m not lying when Shion, Takeshi, and Pii come banging down my door demanding I heal you.”

“You’re not going to listen to the leader of Nameless Street?”

Cloud ignores the steel in the younger man’s voice, with all the ease of Tifa or Aerith brushing aside his bullshit ― and his excuses. Must be a perk of a healer, or spending a lot of time as someone’s confident. “Not when it’s his health that’s on the line. You’re the leader, the main pillar of this town. If you fall without warning, everything you’ve built will be damaged, if not destroyed.”

Cloud’s lips thin, and a grimace lurks in the corners of his eyes, in the curve of his lip.  “Is that what you want to return to?”

Smokey remains silent, but that’s confirmation enough.

“Besides,” Cloud adds awkwardly, “have you seen Takeshi’s puppy eyes, when he wants to know something? That’s a lethal weapon. Much more effective than Shion’s attempts to shake people down.”

It earns him a chuckle, and an unspoken acceptance to his equally wordless apology.

“Yeah. Takeshi has been a great help...” Smokey trails off. He doesn’t add that he’s worried about what’ll happen to the Rude Boys when he’s gone. He doesn’t add that he’s worried about what they’ll do when they find out he’s ill and Cloud can’t heal it ― just like he can’t heal most illnesses ― not even his own.

Cloud hears the echoes anyways, and nods in something that might be agreement, or might be empathy.

~IiI~

Five years ago a man wandered into Nameless Street. Like many before him who had wandered into this portion of town, he was confronted by Smokey, and a small contingent of the relatively newly established Rude Boys. Without any ties or a place to go, and with a satisfactory answer to Smokey’s question, and a lack of objection to becoming “family,” the man was welcomed to Nameless Street and left in peace.

He moved into a small shack off to one side of the main road, never bothered his neighbors, barely spoke to anyone, and only left his home for meals.

No one cared. He didn’t bother anyone, and didn’t seem to want any kind of company.

The children, who ran as wild as they could within the paradoxical safety and danger of the street, were less inclined to leave him be.

“What’s a foreigner doing here?”

“Lala’s brother says anyone can come to Nameless Street and live here if they become part of the family.”

“Yeah, but we don’t see many foreigners.”

“Yes we do! Mei’s family was from China ―.”

“You know what I mean! She doesn’t look any different than us ― _his_ hair is yellow, like some of the Rude Boys, but all the time! It doesn’t even get brown near his head!”

“That is pretty cool....We should ask him how,” she finishes with a decisive nod.

“Mari, no!”

She walks up to the man anyways. Smokey says they’re all family here, and even if there are parts to avoid, lessons to be learned the hard way, the children of Nameless Street aren’t cowards.

“Hey!”

The man blinks up at her from where he’s sitting, having ventured outside to sit on what could be generously called his door step.

“Yes?”

“How’d you get your hair to be so pretty!”

Even his eyes are pretty! Like the sky when the clouds go away, and Smokey goes up to the tower and just watches (she knows because she’s watched him. Family watches each other, right? Or is it watches out for...).

“...it’s always been like this, I think.”

“Oh...” Mari deflated a little at that. “I wanted my hair to be as pretty as yours. Takeshi sometimes has pretty hair like yours, but it’s not as good because it always comes back brown.”

The man looks at her for a long moment. Zan is probably freaking out from behind the house a couple doors down, but they worry too much anyways.

“What’s wrong with brown hair?”

Mari frowns. “But everyone here has brown or black hair ― unless they make it different or they’re old.”

“Doesn’t that help prove you’re all family?” Comes the slow counter.

Mari wrinkles her nose. “So? We’re all family ― that’s what Smokey and Lala and Takeshi and Pii and Shion say. What does having the same hair color have to do with it?”

The man laughs a little, rusty like one of the bikes the Rude Boys take out on very special occasions, and Mari beams, even as she gives a smug smirk to the corner Zan is hiding behind.

“Some people think that looking like everyone else is what really makes them family.”

“They’re stupid then.”

“Or just...a little misguided or lost.”

“Then they should come here! This is where all the lost people come anyways.”

“Maybe someday,” he says in a voice that says it’s probably not gonna happen but he’s not gonna tell her that to her face.  She doesn’t know, for the longest time, that Cloud had seen the echo of another young girl in her words, then.

She huffs.

Well, he’s an adult, they do stuff like this all the time.

“Oh, yeah! What’s your name? Then I can tell Zan so they stops freaking out so much!”

“Is Zan your friend that’s glaring at me?”

“Yep. They’re supposed to be guarding or something.”

“Because I’m a stranger?”

“Because they say your hair is weird and you’re an adult,” is the matter-of-fact retort.

“Ah.”

The man with pretty hair is quite for a few moments, before he says, “Cloud. My name is Cloud.”

“Great! Nice to meet you, I’m Mari!”

“Nice to meet you.”

~IiI~

“Cloud! CLOUD! HELP! You’re an adult, do something!” Mari rushes into his house ― well, shack might be more appropriate, but it’s better than being constantly on the road, so Cloud isn’t really complaining ― and even though she’s done things like this before, he still has to resist the urge to pull out his sword.

“What’s wrong?”

“Zan fell trying to do moves like the Rude Boys, and they landed funny!”

Behemoth shit.

“Funny how?” Cloud asks, pulling on his shoes, and grabbing the bangle with his mastered Cure in it.  (Materia might not work as well in this world – it’s a problem that’s been getting worse with each iteration – but something is better than nothing if an injury is bad.)

“Like their leg is bent and there’s bone sticking out and they’re near the rust pile, and I don’t know if they landed on a pipe or something because there’s too much blood and I’m more worried about their leg, and I think one of the Rude Boys saw and they went to get help because Lala-neechan was nearby helping Ms. Suzuki with cleaning something or another or maybe making bandages or food I’m not sure ― but even if they get Smokey he’ll be later than you getting there so you gotta help because I don’t want Zan to bleed out!” Mari finishes panting and hiccupping with suppressed tears.

“Okay, I see them. Stay here and keep the Boys away. I’ll see what I can do.”

Mari looks ― hair bright in the sunlight and eyes glowing faintly, looking more present than any time she’d ever talked to him before.

“You’ll make them better?”

“Yeah, I’ll make them better.”

“Okay. I’ll stay here and keep the Boys away.”

“Good.” Cloud ruffles her hair with a gloved hand and makes his way over to Zan.

If this were any other situation, Cloud would be wary about pulling the rusty rod from the back of Zan’s leg, but given the way it’s pinning their broken leg, he’s going to have to remove it and hope that a Cure 3 will do as much as it can back on Gaia.

He starts casting as he pulls the rod out, and he wishes he had another pair of hands to straighten Zan’s leg but there’s no one else who wouldn’t interrupt the magic being used, so he makes do.

(It not enough ― Zan had lost a fair amount of blood before Cloud had come and even as he’s casting, he can tell Zan isn’t being healed fast enough.)

Cloud’s used to using materia, used to drawing power from the Lifestream and channeling it through himself, but the Lifestream of this place is different from Gaia ― has always changed to better reflect the planet it now inhabits, even if he can’t, imperfect as he is ― and he only ever manages a trickle.

But this is a kid’s life on the line, and Cloud hasn’t been on this world as long as other ones, but he’s found a home here and Mari would be devastated if Zan dies.

There’s one other place the Lifestream lives, and so Cloud casts a Curaga and pulls on the Lifestream in his veins.

(It hurts ― it’s been there so long, and Cloud has always had an iffy relationship with the Lifestream, with Mako, with any of that anyways, but the stuff in his body is wrapped with his life force and it hurts to pull out and reconfigure in a way that won’t poison Zan.

It’s completely worth the effort and pain, and the blissful dark that comes once Cloud feels that everything major has slid back into place ― Zan’s femur and partially shattered tibia are whole, no random splinters piercing muscle and blood vessels ― and been mended.)

Cloud misses the marvel in Mari’s eyes, or those of the Rude Boys. Doesn’t see the anger and greed in one or two of the others who’ve gathered, not because of a potential tragedy, but because of the brightness, visible even in the sun.

~IiI~

Cloud moves, when the stares get to be too much (because if there’s another thing Nameless Street is good for, it’s gossip), goes to the southern end, which is closer to the edge of the Rude Boys’ territory, but quietly because people haven’t heard of Cloud, and it’s a little closer to a base for the Rude Boys, which is good for Zan, who’s joined up, but also doesn’t want be parted from their best friend and their ― not quite older brother, maybe a cousin ― figure.

Mari helps move the bare minimum, and cordons off her own space, making three sleeping areas in the various odd alcoves of the one-room home, and declares herself the cook.

“Because Cloud forgets to eat, Zan is too lazy and also has a weird patrol schedule, so that leaves me, even if it means we’re going to be eating a lot of rice and pancakes,” she says after they’ve finished moving in.

Cloud blinks at her and slowly nods (it’s been an okay day for him, but it’s been the best one in a while and they really needed to leave, before a whole group of them decided to go after Cloud), while Zan shrugs.

They do end up eating a lot of pancakes and rice for the first couple of months, but Mari gets better at cooking things with more variety, and there’s always the communal soup when things go wrong or they’re all too tired to deal with cooking.

~IiI~

They win some favors in the bartering system for Cloud healing the various injuries Rude Boys acquire, either from a jump gone wrong or fighting assholes who keep encroaching on their territory.

The Rude Boys aren’t a new scout group, but Nameless Street has always been chaotic, and for all that Smokey claims them all as family, not everyone returns the sentiment.

It does mean Cloud figures out how to best utilize his materia (usually) without passing out, though.

(No one questions the glowing green orb in a bracelet.  A few of the others have tried to use it, but they notice the glow fades when they hold it, so it’s much less fun after that.  At least it means that they definitely aren’t susceptible to Geostigma.  Cloud wasn’t entirely sure, and while he’s been wandering surface-side, having been spit out of the Lifestream equivalent a couple of times now, for a while, confirmation is good.)

“Shion, this is the third time this week.”

“Yeah, haha, sorry about that.”

Cloud stares at the younger man.

“Whatever it is had better be worth it.”

“It is! I can’t wait to show Smokey – maybe he’ll be able to fix up that wall on the north side now.”

Shion has a wistful, hopeful smile on his face, and Cloud wonders if he ever looked at Zack like that.

He mentally snorts. Probably.

~IiI~

Pii is out on patrol, when he hears another person running along beside him.

He sighs at the glimpse of gold.  It’s probably Takeshi, again.

“Takeshi, I _already_ took out this week’s trash!” he calls, landing smoothly, but turning away from Takeshi.

“I don’t think I needed to know that, but I’m glad you’re sharing chores,” Cloud – _not_ Takeshi – says from his perch further down the platform.

Pii jumps.  “What the heck!  _Cloud_?”

Cloud smirks, “Yes?”

“You run?”

“Sometimes,” he replies, and turns his head to look at the sky.

Well that explains the odd looks Takeshi was being given that one time, and the rumors about people straying from patrol.

“I still have patrol, but are you willing to run with me afterwards?  Because I’m really curious, now.”

~IiI~

Mari and Zan have seen the bruises. They never go away, but they don’t seem to get much bigger from what they saw as kids, when they first met Cloud. They know they hurt, and sometimes when Cloud goes funny and his eyes go green and he tells them to leave, they notice he clutches at the marks on his right arm, as if he feels like something is being driven into his skin even as he has to mentally fight off something else.

(Sometimes they hear him mutter about a Sephiroth and they wonder, but those of Nameless Street leave their pasts behind them when they live here, so they don’t ask.

Though, they still wonder.)

They saw the bruises ― Cloud calls them Geostigma ― and they know they’re getting a little bit bigger, especially since Cloud started healing people, but they’ve only really seen the ones on his right arm. The rest of the time Cloud is in black pants and a dark turtleneck shirt, socks on and sometimes even with his shoes still laced, even in sleep.

Living with Cloud, now, they realize that what they thought were little issues, ones that he was dealing with, are a lot worse, and that, in true Cloud fashion, he hadn’t been dealing with them at all.

Cloud collapses one day after healing 10 members of the Rude Boys and one of their neighbors, who’d taken a bad spill and been added to the line in their kitchen/living room/dining space because, “if I’m already healing a bunch of moderately injured people, I can heal your shoulder, while I’m at it.”

So he takes care of broken bones, long gashes, a stab wound or two, a couple of concussions of varying severity, and a messed up shoulder, see them all to the door, and collapses.

“Shit,” Zan says, because it’s been awhile since this has happened, but they both know that moving Cloud will be difficult, especially if he collapsed because of whatever is going on in his head, and not because of whatever he does with healing.

(He’s healed more and been tired enough to sleep for nearly a day and been fine, but other days he can barely heal a broken finger and some bruising before either collapsing, or ordering them out of the house as his eyes go green and silted.

By this point they think he was probably some kind of government experiment that escaped, or is fighting an alien for control of his body.)

“Cloud?” They call in tentative unison. Sometimes he twitches and they know to leave him alone until he comes back to them.

Nothing.

“I guess...we should check on him after dinner. It’s soup, so he can drink it cold...” Mari proposes, but it’s clear she’d rather have Cloud at least in his bed if they have to leave him.

Most of the time he makes it that far himself.

“Alright,” Zan says reluctantly, and for all their reluctance in meeting and talking to Cloud the first time, they’ve clearly grown more fond of him than even they like to admit. “Cousin,” as they sometimes call him, or not.

They eat dinner quickly and in silence, absorbed by watching the prone figure by the door. Mari has that look on her face, saying she’s hoping for a twitch of a finger or a random kick, that way they know to clear out and come back in the morning.  Cloud will be tired and worn, but he’ll be awake and usually coherent, quieter, sadder, but slightly smug, too.

Zan remains quiet, not sure if they want to leave Cloud alone again, but knowing that if they do they’ll come back and find him as they normally do.  If Cloud’s actually unconscious, though, then they’ll get to stay and watch over him, for once, instead of it being the other way around.

They pack up the remains of dinner, quickly scour the bowls, and carefully approach Cloud, who still hasn’t stirred.

“Cloud?  Cloud, should we go?”

Silence.

“Cloud?”

“Cloud,” Zan says, “if you don’t respond in the next five minutes, we’re going to try picking you up and putting you in bed.”

Exchanging a look with Mari, they sit back and count.  With each minute they pass, Mari’s eyes pinch, and Zan can feel their lips thinning.  This isn’t looking good.

When Cloud still doesn’t stir, Zan elects to take his upper body, while Mari takes his legs, but before they even manage to touch him and move him, they feel the heat radiating off his body.

“Mari, Cloud’s got a fever.  I’m going to go see if I can get some ice water or something for him, and I’ll let the Boys know to tell Smokey.”

“Okay.  I’ve still got a little cold medicine left over from the last time you caught a cold, so I’ll try and give him some of that.  Help me get him to bed before you leave, and I’ll work on getting him out of his clothes.”

“Alright.”

Zan _flies_ , and the people on the street know enough to not bother them when they’re going that fast, and their speed thankfully attracts the attention of Takeshi, who’d been healed of a long gash down his arm, and a stab wound near his kidneys just a few hours ago.

“What’s wrong, Zan?”

“Cloud’s sick with a fever.  Do we still have ice or ice water left over, something I don’t have to put in a container outside to chill?  Our last one broke a few days ago, and no one’s gotten around to getting it fixed, so we’d have to use a pot…”

“And you don’t want anyone taking that, so you’d have to keep an eye on it and not him.  Yeah, I think we have some left, and you can take my water bottle.  I can just use Pii’s.”  Takeshi tosses the bottle to them and they snag it out of the air, with a “thanks,” before turning to jump off the railing.

Over their shoulder, they ask, “Can you tell Smokey?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell Smokey our healer’s out of commission, go get that water.  I’ll see if some people can’t be spared from patrol or are willing to help run for water if you need it.”

“Thanks,” Zan shouts, as they leap off the platform.  At least Mari should have some help before they get back.  Most of the boys have adopted Cloud as another older brother, anyways.

Cloud always looks so confused when the Boys just stop by to chat, and Mari always says she wishes she had a camera just to take a picture of that face.

Zan borrowed the phone from Lala and got her a picture – it’s her birthday present, but it’s supposed to be a funny one, not a sad one, so Zan pours on the speed and makes their way to the water distribution site for the southern sector.

It’s a quick trip.  There’s only so much water they can really carry and still be able to fly well enough to not make it quicker to use the ground, but hopefully it’ll be enough for a few hours.

They make it back to see Shion and Pii standing outside the house looking awkward even as they stand guard over Cloud, Mari, and Zan’s only pot, which had clearly been recently put out to cool, given the steam rolling off of it.

“Did he wake up?” Zan asks, dropping from the nearest roof.

“No, not yet,” Pii says, frowning.  “Did you have any issues getting cold water?”

“No, thankfully, though I didn’t tell them that Cloud is sick.  We don’t need the attention or the potential hysteria.”

“Good,” Pii nods.  “I wouldn’t have to wanted to have to explain that to Smokey.”

“I brought the left over fever reducer from when I was sick last month.  The expiration date says it’s fine, and Mari looked happy, so hopefully it’ll help.”

“Thanks, Shion.”

“Yeah, well, he’s our weird cousin/brother figure, too.  ‘Least I could do to help.  And besides, he patches us up all the time, especially when I found that old machinery we used in the north end.”

Pii tilts his head, “And he keeps telling us to be careful.”

Zan snorts.  “Cloud is his own worst patient.”

“Not Smokey?”

“Nah, Smokey is fine compared to Cloud.”

Pii’s and Shion’s eyes widen.  “You have my respect for living with him then.”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks.”

“Zan, get in here!” Mari whispers, as she darts to and from the door.

Zan exchanges wary looks with the other two Rude Boys, before entering their home.

“What?”

“Did you know that the Geostigma had spread so far?” Mari asks with her back to them, throwing a rag against a far larger pile than Zan had anticipated.

Zan frowns. “I thought it was just on his arm?”

“So did I…”

Zan takes a good look at the mess spanning across Cloud’s chest and swears quietly.

“We can’t let anyone else in.”

“Smokey knows, I think.  Takeshi might, too, just because he keeps wanting to help around, and actually has a similar sleep schedule.”

“You mean, not sleeping?”

Mari huffs a weak laugh, “Yeah.”

“We’re gonna need help, though, if it lasts longer than tonight.  It’s Pii and Shion right now, but Pii is leading patrol after Takeshi, and he normally takes a nap after going out.”

“And we were just talking about him not sleeping…” Mari teases, before sobering.  “I think we can tell Pii and Shion – it’s Shion’s night off, right?”

Zan nods.

“Right, so he can keep the rest out, if they get too nosey or too well meaning, if we tell him Cloud needs rest.  If Cloud’s not better by tomorrow morning, we’ll probably have to tell them something.  They’re used to Cloud being out of things, but not for longer than a day or a night, and there’s nothing going around to blame this on – not that it would explain the Geostigma, anyways…”

“Yeah. Hopefully he’ll get over this soon.”

The two of them swap off dealing with the Rude Boys at their door, and bathing Cloud with rags dipped in cold water in an attempt to bring his fever down.  It takes nearly two days, but Cloud’s fever eventually breaks, even as he remains generally unconscious for another day and a half, waking briefly here and there to sip some water and occasionally some soup before falling asleep.

(Pii and Shion look even more concerned once they given them a brief overview, which is, “Cloud is sick, he has been for a long time, sometimes it acts up, it’s not contagious, but we don’t want to worry everyone,” but they agree to keep it quiet.  The official story is that Cloud caught a cold and passed out after healing people, which made him slower to recover.

Still, Pii, Shion, and Takeshi, who’d inevitably found out/had his suspicions confirmed, come around a lot more often to help out with things afterwards, though, and Cloud keeps giving Zan and Mari suspicious glances for the next month, but it’s _worth it_.)

~IiI~

“Okay, but Zan, why did you want to join the Rude _Boys_?  Does the name bother you?”

Zan blinks at Mari.  “You…do know that more than half the group are girls, right?”

Mari blinks back.  “What?”

“Yeah,” Zan shrugs.  “Just because they’re not prettier than Cloud and they keep their hair short doesn’t mean they’re not girls.  A few are gender fluid, and there are some that are agender, but we don’t really talk about it.  Some of them have a badge on their shirts they use so we know which pronouns to use, but we don’t really talk about it at all.”

Cloud raises an eyebrow.  “Mari, you’ve been helping me treat people, especially Rude Boys, for years.”

Mari blushes.  “But all the ones I talk to are guys!”

Zan shrugs again, “Well, yeah, most of them live around here, when they’re not in the communal areas.  The girls are mostly in the northern parts of the territory.  They sometimes help out the White Rascals when a girl wants to leave, since there’s only a little bit of Daruma Ikka territory between us there.  You’d think more of the guys would live up north since if we were to fight the rest of SWORD that’s where it’d happen, but nah.”

“So, why is it the Rude Boys?”

“I don’t know.  Rude Girls sounds weird, or like a low rent strip club or something?  Rude People sounds like we’re stereotyping.”

“And Rude Boys doesn't?” Cloud asks.

“Well, if they think we’re boys, they’re probably underestimating us, right?”

Cloud laughs, thinking of a team named Avalanche, how the name was entirely too descriptive, and not enough at the same time, and concedes the point.

Mari is mortified and doesn’t talk to any of the Rude Boys without stuttering for months.

(Zan confesses to Cloud that this apparently disappointed a few of the girls, because not only did they like it when Mari treated them all the same, one of them was also planning on confessing to her later that week, but decided against it, since Mari couldn’t look any of them in the eye.)

~IiI~

And then Mari dies of the flu that’s terrorizing the town that winter, not even three months later, and it’s something that even halts the Rude Boys in their tracks as they try and keep order in Nameless Street.  Zan follows soon after (not of the illness in their lungs, but by drifting away from Cloud, because neither of them deal with grief well, and when they’re together it’s that much worse.  Silence blankets the house, and every time Zan looks at Cloud, all he sees is an accusation, even as Zan sees Mari super-imposed on Cloud, and wonders how long it will take for Cloud to succumb, too.

It doesn’t help that Cloud’s Geostigma is visibly worse after catching the flu that killed Mari, later stage symptoms, like a constant fever and severe lethargy, that he’d only vaguely told them about as children slowly coming to the light, and leaving him generally stuck in bed for long hours as he tries to will his body to get rid of the fever and the pains wracking it.  Zan is stuck trying to help, trying to learn more about the disease and gets rebuffed with every attempt, and the feeling of helplessness is probably what causes them to move out.

But maybe it was the reminder just makes everything worse – that Cloud survived it, despite everything, when Mari didn’t.

Except, Cloud has been the only one to survive a number of things, at this point, not that Zan knows that.  He tells himself he should stop being surprised, even if other people constantly are.

So Cloud is left alone, shoulders shaking with Geostigma fever or illness – it’s getting harder to tell these days – in a hovel with three odd alcoves that used to be a home.

He makes do, he gets by, he survives, but everything is duller.

Smokey comes by still, one of the last to get ill, and still patrolling regardless, and instead of waiting awkwardly by the door (as awkward as the younger man can be, with the confidence and surety of a king in his kingdom), he comes in, and starts talking.

Cloud listens, and listens, and listens.  His fever lowers, and even if it never quite goes away, it remains at a level that leaves him functional, most days, when the lethargy doesn’t keep him in bed, still.

(He’s glad for the company, but, as he plays the somewhat unwilling councilor to the Rude Boys’ leader, he’s glad for his solitude and removal from power. It is not his shoulders these decisions weigh upon, even if they bring back memories of times past when they were.)

~IiI~

Six months become a year, becomes two, and Cloud continues healing the broken, even if he cannot heal the sick.

Smokey continues to come by, and they start talking about things like philosophy, when Cloud is feeling bitter about the bits of Sephiroth and Jenova in him, or hobbies, or the freedom of flying, even if Cloud hasn’t gone running with any of the Boys in years, doesn’t have the energy, anymore.  Sometimes they just sit in silence, because it’s a hard commodity to find in a place where your neighbor might have the exact opposite sleep schedule as you – or you happen to be the leader of a bunch of incredibly loyal, and diligent people, but who, when off duty, are generally incredibly rambunctious.

That’s when Cloud starts to notice how Smokey seems to have slowed down a little – not out of any real desire to do so, but because his body is forcing him to.

“Smokey,” Cloud says, and he knows the other man knows the game is up by the way he stiffens.

Cloud sighs.  “What are your symptoms?”

Smokey remains quite for a while, before finally relenting.  “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“No,” Cloud says, though he wishes he could.  “But depending on your symptoms I might be able to help with them.”

Smokey sighs.  “I’ve been coughing a bit.  I thought it was just a cold, but it doesn’t seem to be stopping.  I’m also starting to feel tired, like I didn’t get enough sleep.”  Cloud could write a book describing that feeling, at this point, but that’s not quite the point, nor something he can cure.

“Your apatite?”

“Normal.”

“Hmm.”  Cloud pulls out another materia and bangle, and if Scan is actually supposed to be for monsters, it works well enough on humans for him to use it instead of a physical (which he’s sure he knows how to do, but considering the ones he remembers most are fragments from those administered by a mad scientist, he’ll use the materia instead).

The Scan shows that there’s something that might be trying to eat away at Smokey’s lungs, so he casts a Cure there, and Scans again.  Things look a little clearer, so he does it a couple more times, until it doesn’t make any difference.

(It also says Smokey is poisoned, but Cloud doesn’t have any potions, and is pretty sure most things needed to make one died with Gaia.)

“You’re apparently poisoned with something – or, that’s what the scan is saying at least, but it usually says that when people are sick.  Whatever it is, it’s been attacking your lungs, slowly, and I healed what I could but they’re not back to normal – you’ve got some scar tissue there, and unless I’m casting Cures at you every moment, it’s probably going to continue to build up.”

Smokey grimaces.  “How long do I have?”

Cloud shrugs.  “Keep coming by and I’ll keep track of how much I’ve got to heal over the next month, and we’ll try and figure things out from there.”

“Alright.”

“How’s Zan doing?”

Smokey pauses and looks at Cloud.  It’s the first time Cloud’s actually asked about his former friend/roommate/kid that he kinda helped raise since they moved out (even if Zan asks about Cloud every time Smokey sees them).

“They’re doing fine – they’re currently helping the girls in the north west portion of our territory.”

Cloud frowns.  “I didn’t think you had any major problems with Sannou.”

Smokey sighs.  “We don’t, but the guys who keep trying to bust in on them and challenge the remnants of Mugen, or who want a piece of SWORD keep trying to do so on the boarder, recently, and the last thing we need is to fight Sannou and Cobra and Yamato.”

Cloud grimaces.  “Do you want me to move?”

Smokey stares at the older man.  “Not now, but maybe in the future.  If things get more hectic….”

“Then you’re going to need my help.  I can move closer to the center in a few months.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cloud says.  “You’ve got enough to deal with.  I don’t envy you, dealing with all of the politics.”

Smokey huffs.  “I don’t envy me either, some days.  But if it’s to protect my family, I don’t mind.”

“Yeah,” Cloud says, softly, after Smokey leaves, “people like you generally don’t.”

~IiI~

Cloud keeps track – makes charts and write them in what he thinks is the common language they spoke in Nibelheim, but probably has bits of regular Midgardian language sprinkled in with some Gongaga, because his memories aren’t the best, but he’s at least tried to remember this. It’s not a perfect record – some days, more than before, he can’t get out of bed, or he’s caught in the weird limbo flashes battling Sephiroth’s and Jenova’s remnants in his system for his mind and body.  (They can’t survive without the Mako in his veins, but then, at this point, neither can he.)

Other days, he’s healed too many people to be able to do more than Scan Smokey.

Smokey, even if he’s a little amused at the subterfuge, is grateful, since it means that if any of the Rude Boys see it – or if someone else is nosing about, they’ll have no idea what they’ll have found.  It’s another level of security, even with Cloud now living directly in their central base after an attempted altercation that was headed off by Shion and a few other Rude Boys.

(Sometimes Zan comes around, and Cloud.  Cloud isn’t sure what to do.  Sometimes he flees – if he’s feeling up to it.  Other times he barricades himself in his room, and sometimes he just waits by the door.

Zan will see him, and flit by.  They’ve moved to proper greetings, now, though nothing more than superficial remarks beyond that.  It’s a step up from the first few weeks Cloud spent around the base, where they just outright avoided or ignored each other.)

Smokey continues coming by to see Cloud and chat.  The quiet isn’t quite as perfect anymore, the base has interesting acoustics, but it’s still a small puddle of calm in the insanity and activity of the building.

Shion stops by more, too, although he looks more tired than the last time he’d come by for his birthday.  Pii and Takeshi look more tired as well, although not as much.

It seems things are starting to heat up.

~IiI~

“Smokey, you’re not going to be able to hide it from them any longer.  I can’t heal much more than this – you’re going to start to have to deal with whatever this is without a Cure.”

“I know,” Smokey wheezes softly, from where he’s lying prone on the bed in the alcove.  He’d just had a major coughing fit, which was part of why he’d retreated back to Cloud’s room in the first place.  “You’re not going to last much longer at this rate, either.”

Cloud laughs, bitterly. “If this is what ends up killing me, I’ll be very disappointed in myself.”  Though his eyes have been flickering green more often than a clear blue in the past few months.  He’s starting to think it wasn’t a good idea to move to the base.  People keep asking him about his eyes, and he’s had to start wearing long sleeves so people who don’t know don’t start asking. Or panicking.

(Because apparently when a healer is sick, everyone has to panic, especially when said healer can’t heal themselves.)

Smokey raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t push.

“I’ll tell Takeshi, Pii, and Shion.  They already know that something isn’t right.”

“Good.”

Takeshi bursts in an hour later, trying to find Smokey and waking them both up from a nap, Smokey on the bed, and Cloud sprawled across the floor.

“Smokey!  We’re supposed to –,” Takeshi blinks.  “Oh, sorry.  Um.  We were supposed to have a meeting half an hour ago.”

Smokey sighs, and slowly sits up.  “Alright, I’ll be right there.”

Cloud blinks the sleep from his eyes and glares at the Rude Boys’ leader, his eyes brighter than in the past week.  “No, you’re staying right there.  I can clear out and you can talk to the Boys.”

Takeshi looks between the two, and opens his mouth as if to ask something before opting to not say anything.

Smokey gazes at Cloud, who hasn’t even attempted to move.  “Can you even get up right now?”

Cloud rolls his eyes, but doesn’t say anything, even as he starts making an odd shuffling motion to the door.

“Do you want help?” Takeshi asks, voice wavering with laughter as he looks unsure if he should actually laugh or not.  The movement is funny.  The reason for it isn’t, even if Cloud would probably laugh at himself.

(Mostly because he’d start imagining Sephiroth or Jenova making a similar motion, and no matter how graceful Sephiroth was, there’s no way it wouldn’t look ridiculous, with his hair all over the floor and getting caught everywhere.)

Smokey snorts.

“I’m fine,” Cloud grunts.  “You should go get the others.”

“Ooor, we’re right here already,” Shion says from the door.

“Cloud, what’re you doing?” Pii asks, laughing after the slightest hesitations.  Cloud doesn’t mind.  They all need something to laugh about before the bomb Smokey is going to drop.

“I’m leaving so you can talk and make plans.”

“That doesn’t seem like the fastest way to leave,” Shion observes.

“It’s not,” Cloud admits.

Pii, Shion, and Takeshi all exchange a look, the first two bending down and slowly pulling Cloud upright.  “Where are we taking you?” Pii asks.

“…”

“You hadn’t thought that far had you?” Takeshi says, raises an eyebrow.

Shion looks at Cloud’s face.  “No, no he hadn’t.”

“Whatever, brats.  Put me somewhere out of the way and I’ll come back when you’re done.”

All three of them roll their eyes.

“Hey, Smokey, does he have to leave?” Takeshi asks.

Smokey watches them for a moment before shaking his head.  “No.  It’s probably better if he’s here, anyways.”

Pii looks very smug for some reason.

“Right, then,” Takeshi shuts the door, and Pii and Shion slowly lower Cloud onto another pile of blankets.

“How’s the north, Shion?”

“It’s doing better.  Sannou’s been good about meeting whoever keeps challenging them away from our boarder, and things look to have settled down.  It’s back to the regular people who come and try to fight them, so we don’t have to worry about them thinking we’re trying to invade or start something.”

“Good.  Any other problems?”

It goes on, and while Cloud would like to pay attention (this is directly going to influence who he’s going to have to heal, at some point in the near future, after all), he’s still tired after healing Smokey, and his head’s the clearest it’s been in weeks, so he takes the opportunity to doze without echoes of Sephiroth and Jenova ripping through his peace.

“Finally, I need to tell you three something important.”

“Yes?” Pii sounds incredibly excited, and Cloud wishes he knew why.

“Recently,” Cloud snorts, but Smokey continues, “I’ve been sick.  Cloud has been helping by healing the symptoms, but my lungs aren’t doing well and they’re not getting better.  They’ve gotten to the point where Cloud can’t keep healing them, because the scar tissue is building up too quickly and is beginning to cause its own problems.”

“So _that’s_ why you’ve been going to see Cloud so often?  To get your lungs healed?”

“And his throat, and I think it’s going to eventually cause eye problems and possibly damage to other internal organs, but I can’t tell you for sure because I’m not a doctor nor can I see the future,” Cloud mumbles.

“Yes, that’s why,” Smokey confirms.

“Damn,” Pii mutters.

Smokey quirks a brow.  “Why’re you so disappointed, Pii?”

Pii ducks his head and mutters, “There might’ve been a bet about whether or not you and Cloud were in a relationship.”

“Wait, _what_?” Cloud sits bolt upright and regrets it immediately, crumpling forward.

“Woah, are you okay, Cloud?”

Cloud mutters something unintelligible from his new position on the floor, head between his knees, but since he doesn’t seem to be in any further pain, they leave him alone.

(Pii also doesn’t want to be punched by him.  He’s seen him break concrete, once, after an earthquake had displaced some of the old buildings and sent them tumbling down on people.  Cloud had dived in after the residents, and helped rescue a couple of the children who’d been trapped underneath concrete they couldn’t shift.

That might’ve been years ago, but Cloud hadn’t lost much muscle mass, despite his illness.  Pii isn't willing to risk it.)

“Is _that_ why Lala has been giving me weird looks?  And asking if I needed anything from the convenience store?” Smokey asks.

“Probably,” Takeshi shrugs.  “I told Pii that I was pretty sure you two were just friends.  Shion thought you were like, courting each other, or something.”

Shion stopped laughing with that comment. “Well, you two spend a lot of time together and get along really well…. It was possible.”

Smokey sighs.  Cloud continues muttering at the floor.

“Well, now you know why.  And can you try and stop the rumors going around, then?”

The other three Rude Boys look at each other.

“Well, if you’re not going to spend as much time together, since Cloud can’t keep healing you, then people will probably think you had a falling out or something on their own.”

Smokey blinks.  “How many people think we’re in a relationship?”

“Most of them?” Pii offers.

Cloud flops over.  “That explains that really awkward conversation Zan tried to have with me a few weeks ago.”

“Yeah.  Is that the day you actually ran through the base?”

“Yep.”

“What they ask you about?”

Cloud sighs.  “How I was managing to get around and get condoms, when I was having issues walking down the hallway that week, because of the Geostigma.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you should have more energy now that you’re not healing me twice a day.  When I can, that is.”

Now the rest of the boys stare at Smokey.

“Twice a _day_.”

“Smokey, how long has this been going on?”

“And why hasn’t Cloud dragged you to a hospital or kidnapped a doctor?”

“I only did that twice,” Cloud mutters.

“Yeah, so why didn’t you do it _this_ time?” Shion asks.

Cloud sighs.  “One, you need Smokey to be seen, since he’s the leader, and he usually joins at least one patrol to help moral and to stay in touch with everyone, so I can just dump him at a hospital.  Two, I can’t kidnap a doctor, because that one owed me favors, and while she still owes me favors, Smokey would probably need to be seen with special equipment that I’m not going to steal, because that would get the hospital in trouble, cause problems for other people who need the equipment, and also I’d look really strange walking down the street with a MRI machine, and maybe a little suspicious.  Also, I’d have to rest a lot, or I’d have to hold off healing Smokey and everyone else for at least a couple of days, so that could cause other problems.  Also I’m not sure how much electricity it would take.”

“I’m touched you are willing to go through all that trouble for me.”

“Eh, I didn’t actually go through with any of it, but I would’ve if I could’ve gone fast enough with the MRI, knew how to use it, and was sure we’d have enough power.”

“Cloud…how strong _are_ you?” Shion asks in awe.

“Too much and not enough?” Cloud hedges, rolling over and worming his way into the pile of blankets again.  “I’m gonna take another nap.”

“Does this mean he can bench press me?” Shion wonders, even as worry lines his eyes.

“Dude, I saw him break multiple concrete walls with his bare hands,” Pii says.  “If he says he can carry an MRI machine for a little ways, then he can probably lift you really easily.”

Takeshi rolls his eyes, but Smokey has a smile on his face, so the silliness isn’t that bad.  It does mean that if things do get shaken up, they’re going to have a problem.  Smokey is their best fighter, and their leader.  The three of them are going to have to take on more of his work as time passes, and they also need to consider what to tell everyone else.

(Smokey sees Takeshi thinking, even as the other two are having fun, and while he knows any of them could be good leaders, he thinks that Takeshi is the one who’d be the best.)

~IiI~

“Sannou’s fighting Oya Kou!”

“What?  Why?” Pii shouts over the din that erupts.

“Something about stealing a member or something!”

“Shit, someone get Smokey!  We need to prepare if Sannou is going to try and take over the rest of SWORD!”

~IiI~

“Smokey, if they plan to fight us next, we’re going to have problems,” Shion says.

“Yeah.  If all of them come that’s one thing, but if they sneak in it’s going to be hard to keep track of them all.  You and Cloud, if he’s feeling well enough, can take Cobra and Yamato, and we can probably take the rest, but it’s worrying that they beat Oya Kou already and so easily,” Takeshi adds.

“We can increase patrols, but it’s not going to help in the long run if we run ourselves ragged now.  Plus, they’ve got to be at least a little beat up after going against Oya Kou, especially since Cobra fought Murayama one on one,” Pii says.

“It’s unlikely that they’ll actually try for our territory.  We don’t have anything to offer them, that they know about, and Cobra and Yamato were never motivated by greed.”

“You know, this is great and all, but why are you in my room again?” Cloud asks the four Rude Boys members.

“Well, you don’t have any patients right now, and it’s pretty quiet, and people aren’t listening in on us,” Takeshi points out.

“Also, Smokey’s still here a lot, since you want to keep an eye on his health, and we don’t want to freak everyone else out.”

“Yeah, yeah, blame it on the healer, Shion,” Cloud grumbles.   “Whatever.”

“You’re not going to try and leave?” Pii asks.

“Would you let me?”

“No.  But you can walk today, and I don’t want to fight you.”

Cloud looks bemused.  “You’re never going to get over the concrete, are you?”

A brief flash of terror crosses Pii’s face.  “Nope.”

“Okay, now that we’re off topic again, how are we going to prepare for Sannou, if they come calling?” Takeshi says, trying to pull everyone back to the real reason why they’re meeting.

“Sannou is pretty straight forward.  They’re not really big on subtlety, so they’d probably just walk in sometime during the day.  If we run patrols on weekends, that’s probably our best bet, since they work, right?”

Shion nods, “That’s what they say up north.  Yamato works at a garage.”

“Wow, way to stick true to your roots,” Cloud mutters, knuckles clenching and unclenching against the floor.

Smokey frowns at him, but turns his attention back to the other members.

“So we run an extra patrol or two, and see how that goes for a month or so?”

“Sounds good.”

“Get out, get out, get out,” Cloud starts chanting, head in his hands, knuckles white where they clutch his skull.

Smokey grabs Shion and Takeshi herds Pii out the door, before letting it fall shut to a crash.

“I think that was the table,” Pii says off handily.

“I thought he’d been doing better, these past few weeks, not having to heal you – or anyone – as much,” Takeshi says, looking at Smokey.

Smokey sighs.  “It’s not that simple.”

Shion remains quiet, but worry is clear from the creases near his eyes and his frown.

The four of them exchange grimaces, and leave their friend and healer to trash his room fighting demons that only existed in his mind.

(Pii comes back with soup for dinner and leaves it outside the door, when there’s no response to knock.)

~IiI~

“Cloud!”

“Yeah?”

“Smokey had an attack – Sannou is here, and he started coughing after he fought Yamato – he’s coughing up blood!”

Cloud grimaces.  “Alright, is he coming here?”

“No, he’s staying in the central area in case more of Sannou comes, and to help coordinate the search for Yamato and the other two that snuck in.”

“Alright.”

Cloud checks to make sure the Cure and Scan are still in the bangles on his wrist and sets off to the common area.

Guess it’s a good thing he’s having a good day, today.

“So you fought Yamato?” Cloud asks Smokey, as he activates the Scan materia.

“Yes.  He said Lala was involved with Red Rum?”

He sounds as unsure as Cloud has ever heard him, and Cloud doesn’t say how he hasn’t seen Lala around lately, that she’s been hanging with Shion, who’s far more tired and stressed than either Pii or Takeshi for no reason Cloud knows of, and he’s pretty sure the two of them aren’t sleeping with each other.

“So find her and ask her.  Did they have proof?”

“They had a packet of Red Rum which they claimed was found here, but that drug is everywhere, now.  That’s meaningless.”

“Then find both of them and figure out what’s going on.”

Smokey tries to growl, but it catches in the back of his throat, and he has to stop and try to hold off the coughing fit that’s brewing, even though he just had one.

(He knew things would be rougher, once Cloud wasn’t able to heal him as often as he had been, but reality was a different matter.  He’s had multiple fits up on top of the old water tank or in an empty hallway, but this is the first time most of his family is seeing just how bad “being sick” is for their leader.)

Light flares behind his eyelids, and Cloud’s grimace is the first thing he sees when he opens them.

“I though you said you couldn’t heal me anymore.”

“I can’t,” Cloud mutters, frowning, “but I can try and make sure none of the blood is pooling in your lungs – or at least see try to make sure you’ll be well enough to deal with the Sannou people running through the Street.”

“Thank you.  Sorry for the trouble.”

Cloud rolls his eyes and ignores the thanks and apology.  “Go deal with the invaders, get answers from Shion and Lala, and then go rest.”

Smokey nods, but they both know one of those things is probably going to go undone, and it’s not the ones which affect the safety of Nameless Street’s inhabitants.

“Smokey!  We found the Sannou guys!”

With a dip of his head to Cloud, Smokey stands.  “Let’s go, then.”

~IiI~

“Oi, Shion, what is this?” Because the factory is everything that Smokey feared when he heard the accusation thrown by Yamato.

(He’s known that Shion was more tired than could be explained by more patrols and responsibilities.  Neither Takeshi nor Pii were that stressed, that tired, and Shion had become more secretive, too, but Smokey hadn’t wanted to see what was laid right out in front of him. Love is blind, and Smokey is but another one of its victims.)

Rocky shows up before Smokey can get an answer, however, and then Iemura-kai and Noboru show their faces as well, even if they do retreat quickly.

Things are really starting to heat up, now.

~IiI~

“I’m sorry you were so concerned about my illness that you had to go this far, to try and pay for a hospital, when you found out Cloud can’t do anything, anymore.  For that, I sincerely apologize.”

Smokey bows at his waist, and he can feel how uncomfortable this is making everyone, but it’s his fault that this got started in the first place.

(And maybe Cloud’s, too, because he _is_ friends with Shion, is _family_ to Shion, but Cloud isn’t here, and Smokey can’t – won’t – apologize for him, too.)

“Nameless Street is where everyone goes and leaves their past behind.  If you leave, Iemura-kai won’t be able to follow you.”

And despite his best efforts, the cough he’s been suppressing the rest of the day chooses that moment to come out.

“Smokey,” Shion says, voice rough, even as the rest of the Rude Boys converge on him, asking if he’s alright, if they should get Cloud, if he needs water, or something else.

“Go,” Smokey spits out alongside the blood he does his best to keep everyone but Pii and Takeshi from seeing.

Shion leaves (but he’s not abandoning his family – he’s not abandoning Smokey and Cloud, who’ve given him so much).

~IiI~

“Seriously, what are you guys doing to not only get injuries from stuff falling on you, but also messing up your lungs.  Are you mining stuff?  And did it occur to you that digging stuff up from the ground beneath us is not a good idea, when we have enough of a problem with stuff during earthquakes?” Cloud tiredly. 

“Seriously these are the fifth of this kind of injury that I’m seeing this _week_.”

“But we need it.”

“You need your health.”

Takeshi rolls his eyes.  “Speak for yourself.  I heard from Pii you haven’t been eating much.”

“Yeah, well, if what you ate made you throw up black gunk, you wouldn’t eat either,” Cloud mutters.

“…Is this normal, with your Geostigma?” Takeshi asks, cautiously.  Because there’s only so much anyone can ask Cloud about his mysterious illness, and what Zan remembers isn’t much, in part because they’d been a kid, and in part because Cloud just hadn’t told them much in the first place.  Not even when Mari had still been around.

“No idea.  Probably.  I’m not dead yet, at least.”

Takeshi doesn’t say anything for a while, realizing Cloud’s defenses are up, and he’s already walking a fine edge, being here when Cloud’s eyes are that green, before asking, “Would wearing masks help with the lungs issue?”

Cloud sighs.  “Yeah, even just some clean cloth that you wash every now and then would be better than nothing.  It’s not perfect, and you really need something better, but something is better than nothing.”

“Alright.”  Takeshi’ll talk with Pii and Lala and maybe Zan about finding some rags for the diggers to use.  They should probably make sure the people who are breaking the crystals out of the rocks also have something, just in case.

“Good,” Cloud says, and even if his tone is annoyed and a little angry, Takeshi has known him long enough to read the ‘thank you’ in his body language.

~IiI~

“There’s a sword fighter going up against Smokey!”

“Where?” Cloud asks, voice hard, even if he’s not really well enough to walk much more than a few feet after healing the burn victims.  He wishes he’d had an Ice materia, but, well, some things don’t travel between planets, apparently – not that he’d have enough energy to use it and then heal as many people as he’d have inevitably injured.

(There’s also flashbacks hovering at the edge of his memory – one of Sephiroth backlit by the fire that was Nibelheim, but Cloud shoves it away, as best he can.  There’ll be time for breaking down later.)

“Down on the south side,” Zan says, rushing through the base.

“Can you take me there?” Cloud all but demands.

Zan stares at him for a moment, before nodding, and shouting, “Rin, take the group to deal with the west.  I’m going to help Smokey!”

The Rude Boy in question glares, and shouts, “You owe me!” but takes the lead of the group headed out.

“Let’s go,” Zan says to Cloud.

They end up getting there too late for Cloud to do anything but heal the injuries left over from the confrontation with the Mighty Warriors (and he scoffs when he hears the name.  It’s too close to SOLDEIR, honestly), but no one ends up dead from bleeding out or their own stupidity, so that’s something, even if he has to assign a number of people to pick the glass out of their fellow gang member’s skin.

(Some have glass in their eyes, and that’s not something Cloud can heal, but he can at least try and make it less excruciatingly painful.)

Cloud is also treated to the sight of Shion driving a Jeep with Pii and Takeshi in the backseat holding Smokey up, and it’d be a lot funnier if Smokey hadn’t taken a few good hits to his ribs.

~IiI~

Things calm down, although all the SWORD gangs are tense, waiting warily for Iemura-kai’s or another Kyuuryuu group’s next move. Sannou might be the tensest, with their history with Iemura-kai, but the Rude Boys aren’t far behind them.

Smokey has started to visibly worsen, particularly as his eyes begin to cloud over.

“I think they’re cataracts?” Cloud says, “But I’m no eye doctor, and I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to see as well as you are if they were.”

“But I’m probably going blind.”

“I don’t think you need me to confirm that,” Cloud states, voice flat.

“No, I guess I don’t.”

~IiI~

Things come to a head, and with the release of Doubt’s head from prison, things get even worse.  The addition of another gang to the mess doesn’t help matters, and while Rude Boys go to help the White Rascals, Smokey steps back from leadership – not down, but Takeshi is slowly taking over a number of duties he used to consider his own, as the leader of the Rude Boys, and to a lesser extent, Nameless Street.

~IiI~

There is another little girl, who calls Lala, “Nee-chan,” and Smokey, “Onii-chan,” and says Cloud’s name the same way Marlene did, Denzel did, Mari did, Zan does, Shion does, Pii does.

“She has the same thing you do,” is all that Cloud can say in reply, after being asked to check, and it feels like a death sentence.

(Smokey, Takeshi, and Pii grimace, and Lala’s nose twitches as she holds back tears, even as the girl, as Eri, looks ecstatic at sharing something with her brother.

Cloud isn’t sure he’s hated himself more, then, and that’s enough to spark another internal battle with Sephiroth.)

~IiI~

Iemura-kai comes for Nameless Street, comes for its people (for whatever nefarious purpose they have in mind – be it black market organ donation, prostitution, slavery, or something else), and comes for the resources beneath it.

They tear down homes, with or without people in them, and once again bombs are set to blow up Nameless Street.

(Smokey, in the quiet of his own mind, sardonically thinks that his street, his home, is not supposed to be the fire he’s rising from – not so literally, at least.)

(Cloud, who was ready to march on Iemura-kai and the Mighty Warriors from the first set of bombs, soldiers through the flashbacks and Sephiroth’s even louder presence as people burn down his home once more.)

They can’t win this the way they’ve won in the past – with a show of strength and a swift and thorough eviction from Nameless Street.  Not when there are things like property deeds, and notices of for their own evictions.

It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s not like the rest of SWORD hasn’t had to do the same, recently.

~IiI~

 “I thought I told everyone to run.”

Cloud chuckles, as he walks into the common area.  “Smokey, you know you can’t order me around at this point.”

“What about the Rude Boys?  Or Lala, or Eri?  If they’re injured escaping –.”

“I can’t be everywhere, Smokey, and you know as well as I do that I’m not going to last much longer.  I’d rather go out with a fight, anyways.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

“Not without being a hypocrite,” Cloud agrees cheerfully, swinging First Tsurugi onto his shoulder.

“Where did you get the sword from?  I’ve never seen you with it before.”

“You don’t question the healing magic, but you ask about the sword,” Cloud shakes his head slightly before grimacing.  “This is First Tsurugi.  And I figure, we’re going out with a bang.  Gotta do it right.”

Smokey smirks and lifts his head to smile at the sky.

“It’s a good day to die.”

“It’s never a good day to die,” Cloud snorts, if only because something about this whole situation is far too reminiscent of Zack’s final desperate dash to Midgar, though Smokey doesn’t know that, “but yeah.  A good day to die.”

Slowly snow starts to drift down from the few clouds, reflecting the light of the moon in silver-white slivers that whisper when they land.  It’s peaceful in the common area, for the first time since anyone had settled in Nameless Street, and even if none of the inhabitants were there, there’s something calming about standing in the abandoned area.

“Here they come,” Cloud breaths, and Smokey looks down to the entrance just in time to meet the leader’s eyes.

“Why have you come back here?” Smokey asks.

“Why didn’t you take care of my younger brother?  I climbed up from this pathetic pit and I had a place – Shion refused to follow me because of you – you and that fucking foreigner.”

“Kai, if you leave Nameless Street, you don’t come back.”

“You don’t make the rules anymore, _Smokey_.”

And with that, both sides charge.

Cloud cuts a swath through the men who followed Nikaido – Kai, to kill Smokey, but Cloud is tired, not only from his life and constant imperfect continued existence alongside the bare remnants of the Lifestream he knew, but also from the imbalance of Lifestream and Jenova in his own body.  He might have been the best SOLDIER ever made, having repeatedly beaten Sephiroth, but even SOLDIERS die (even Sephiroth died, physically).

He kills enough of them in one go to give Smokey a chance to fight Kai one on one for a time, but the men keep coming, and coming, and coming, and Sephiroth is trying to break out of his mind, and that’s not something he’ll inflict on this world.

Stabbing First Tsurugi into the concrete, confident that no one else will be able to pull it out, Cloud gives up fighting with anything but his fists, and throws himself to the side, intercepting a blow meant for Smokey’s back, and fights to stand upright again, as more and more blows rain down on him, in direct contrast to the gentleness of the snow.

Smokey fights Nikaido with everything he has left – which is a lot more than what he otherwise would have, but it’s not enough, not in the face of fury, resentment, and sadism that Kai has clearly nurtured under Iemura-kai.

Nevertheless, Smokey gets a number of punches and kicks in, but then Cloud falls, and there’s nothing keeping back the wave of people from breaking on Smokey and breaking him.

It’s a crush of feet and metal pipes and bats, with the odd knife stuck in there, too, and Smokey closes his eyes with a smile, because his people, if they’re together, they’re safe, and Takeshi will do an excellent job leading them, with Pii at his back.

Finally, the grunts from Iemura-kai finally get tired of beating a dead body, and leave, but not after one or two spit on the corpse of one of SWORD’s leaders, and the person who was willing to give anyone a home, should they but ask for it.

Cloud, barely more durable now than a regular human, clings to life.  He’s not the one the mob was sent to kill, and they don’t check his body nearly as thoroughly.

He drags himself to where he stabbed First Tsurugi into the concrete, leaning against the broad blade.  His eyes are silted, but Sephiroth isn’t escaping now, not when Cloud is so close to winning, even if he’s dying.

But he’ll stay until the others get here.  That much he can do.

~IiI~

“Smokey!” Lala calls desperately.  “ _Smokey_!”

“Smokey!” Takeshi and Pii join in, hoping, so hard it’s nearly strangling them, that their leader is still alive.

They finally reach the central area, and are met with a prone figure and one propped against an incongruously large sword which none of them have seen before.

“Cloud!” Pii shouts, noting the blonde hair and Geostigma, even as Lala and Takeshi rush over to the person lying in the middle of the ground, who can only be Smokey.  He approaches slowly, knowing that most of Cloud’s days have been bad, and he doesn’t want to see the sword in action, used on him, but he can hear Cloud breathing, so that’s something, right?

“Cloud, are you okay?  Where’s your materia?  Can you heal yourself and Smokey?  C’mon, Cloud, are you awake?”

Cloud’s lips twitch in an attempted grin, even as his eyes close and his breath stops.

“Smokey!” Lala wails, and Pii can hear Takeshi harshly bite back a sob, even as Pii has to choke his own back.

They have other things they need to do – find Eri, first of all, see if any of the rest of the Boys had caught her after she’d dodged away from Lala and headed back to Nameless Street for Smokey, but right now, Smokey is dead, Cloud is dead, and even the Rude Boys need time to absorb this blow.

(They knew it was coming, are all certain that Smokey was more than happy to die watching their backs, and that Cloud was there for the end, so Smokey didn’t die without a friend, without family, nearby.  That doesn’t mean they were ready for the loss.)

The rest of the Rude Boys they were with, including Zan, who’d been looking for Cloud in the mess of their flight from Nameless Street, slowly trickle in.  There are countless shouts and sobs, and Zan might be more than a little broken, now, clutching at Cloud’s body, but Takeshi, Pii, and Lala have to push their grief aside to see the end of Iemura-kai (and, if they’re lucky, a good portion of the Kuryuu group’s power, too).

“We’ll move one, we’ll get stronger,” Takeshi says, voice still raw with grief, but firm.  “It’s what Smokey would have wanted us to do.”

Pii nods, “And Cloud would’ve snarked at us to ‘get our asses in gear and bring down the assholes.’”

“We’ll bring them down,” Takeshi repeats, “not just for Smokey, and Cloud, and everyone else we’ve lost to Iemura-kai and Kyuuryuu, but for our future, so we can fly freely again.”

~Fin~

* * *

Thank you for taking the time to read the longest oneshot I've ever written (seriously, I wrote like 8,000 of these words in one sitting and it was an  _experience_ ).

Hopefully everyone isn't too OOC.  I figure that Cloud gets snarkier the more he opens up, and Shion is actually relatively chill and fun when he's not, well, running an underground drug factory.  He seems to have a lot of fun with the Jeep in the first movie, considering the circumstances, at least.

(I'm also not sure how well I did on people's voices because something just don't sound as good in Japanese...but, I also don't know enough Japanese to translate everything so, yeah. Voices are hard.)

You know, on my 5th reread, I've realized there are a fair number of easter eggs and just.  Why brain.

Anyways, kudos, comments, and concrit welcome.  Feel free to poke me on tumblr; I'm [fins-illusion](http://fins-illusion.tumblr.com).


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